


clean slate

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: who's watching your back? [2]
Category: Persuasion - Jane Austen, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clones, Early Days, F/M, Fluff, Jedi, Long-Distance Relationship, Mandalorian, Rebel Alliance, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-19
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22318102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: Cin vhetin: it means a fresh start. Anne and Worth have earned one.
Relationships: Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth, James Benwick & Captain Harville & Frederick Wentworth
Series: who's watching your back? [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1606387
Comments: 13
Kudos: 92





	clean slate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skitzofreak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skitzofreak/gifts).



> For skitzofreak, in my 12 fandoms of Christmas giveaway.

Anne didn't stay with him. Worth knew it had been a forlorn hope; he still had his orders and his Pathfinders, and Anne still had... whatever mysterious role she had in the Rebel Alliance. What could you do with a single Jedi, in these days when the Force-sensitive were hunted down like rats, and trained Force-users a scarce commodity? Probably a lot more things than you could do with one battered old ex-clonetrooper. And the Rebel Alliance laid its plans well in advance (and naturally did not share them with a poor footsoldier like Worth). So it wasn’t a surprise to Worth that Anne left Lyme without him; he was just grateful that this time, he got to say goodbye. 

He got a kiss, too, and Benic had that look on his face that suggested poetry might ensue, but Worth didn't care. After eight years being kissed by Anne made his ears ring like a stun grenade, only pleasant. 

“Never mind,” Harvil said, elbowing Worth in the ribs. “This way you might actually come back together again.”

“Yeah,” Worth said, more softly than he meant to.

“ _ Look _ at you, you sentimental old bastard,” Harvil said gleefully, and Worth was about to knock him flying  _ vod  _ or no  _ vod  _ when the smallest of the kids tripped down a step onto the beach and started crying, effectively distracting them both. 

Worth himself had not yet received fresh orders. He did so a week later. He bid his friends a regretful farewell, tolerated Benic putting him in a headlock and making him swear not to break Anne's heart again, and repacked his kitbag.

There was a comm tucked into one of his socks which Worth did not recognise. For a moment his heart pounded with panic that it was some kind of Imperial bug, and then he realised firstly that Imps didn't fuck around with comms when they had access to actual professionally made covert listening gear, secondly that the design was typically Mon Calamari and there was no such thing as a Mon Cala with a good word for the Empire, thirdly that nobody had been near the kitbag but him, and fourthly that the comm wasn't actually hidden. Just tucked into a sock for safekeeping.

He pulled it out and flicked it open. It wasn’t state of the art, which was a good thing, because that would have attracted attention, but it was a good model. When he opened the contacts menu a single name scrolled across it. It wasn't a name he knew, but when he selected the message attached (“ _ you have one. new. message from this contact. To listen, press _ -“) Anne's voice said shyly: “Hello, Worth.”

That was all. Two words, that was all. Two words, and (Worth poked around a bit) a really tightly encrypted private comm, and a way to contact her, day or night, in this system or any other - an extended hand, an invitation to attachment. Whatever attachment was. He still was not clear on that.

Worth's heart was definitely beating well outside Kaminoan parameters. He sat on the floor and clutched the comm in his fist and pressed the fist to his forehead, and breathed.

After several moments he raised his head and renamed the contact 1, for anonymity. Then he touched the menu, and selected  _ record message _ , and cleared his throat. Then he lifted the comm to his mouth, and said “Hi,  _ cyar’ika _ .”

It was probably presuming too much. She'd just said ‘Worth’, not anything like ‘sweetheart’, or ‘darling’, or any of the myriad (bad) translations for the Mandalorian word available. But Worth reckoned it was time to take a risk.

He pressed send, and let go a breath he hadn't realised he was holding.

It was a start, he thought. A start. And a second chance they both deserved.


End file.
